Apparatus for printing photographic sound records



Oct. 4, 1938. 0. voN MIHALY APPARATUS FOR PRINTING PHOTOGRAPHIC SOUNDRECORDS Filed March 21, 1935 Patented Oct. 4, 1938 UNITED STATESAPPARATUS FOR GRAPHIC PRINTING PHOTO- SOUND RECORDS Dnes von Mihaly,Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany, assignor of six-tenths to the firm JuliusPintsch Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin; Germany Application March 21; 1935,Serial No. 12,326

' In Germany June 16, 1934 4 Claims.

There have been two possibilities for providing endlessbands of filmwith a plurality of parallel 5 sound tracks from which a long musicalpiece or several shorter ones can be reproduced continuously, i. e., (a)the direct recording on the film band by means of a narrow light beamacting upon the film and controlled by the microphone 10 currents, and(b) the transfer of a phonographic or photographic record from a disc orfrom a film onto the endless film by means of a narrow light beam actinguponthe film and controlled by a reproducing devicecooperating with said15 disc.

However both said possibilities have many disadvantages. The directrecording involves high expenses; moreover, in case that the cheaper andfireproof narrow film is to be used, it offers also technicaldifiiculties due to the reduced size of the sound record and to theincreased light losses caused thereby. With the transfer of disc recordsall defects caused by the imperfectness of the mechanical production ofsound records on the disc are transmitted onto the photographic record,and further defects are added by the transmitting means; besides thetransmission takes much time since it can not be efiected more quicklythan an audible reproduction of the original sound record. The transferof a photographic record in one track by reproducing and recording hassimilar disadvantages.

The object of this invention is to produce a soundrecord consisting of aplurality of subsequent parallel sound tracks on an endless band of filmby printing from a sound record consisting of a single track. Herewiththe original film record is transferred onto the endless band of filmmay be at a reduced scale in case of using a narrow film for the endlessband but otherwise entirely unchanged and without additional defects;and the transfer takes only a little part'of the time which would benecessary for reproducing and again recording the sounds since here thefilm can be illuminated through a much larger gate than with recording.For the same reason this method enables to use a narrow film for theendless band without impairing the quality of the sound record.

A further object of the invention is to subdivide the single track ofthe original sound record on the primary film into a plurality ofsubsequent parallel tracks on the endless secondary film by causingintermittent relativemovements between the secondary film and "theprinting llghtbeam in a direction transversely of the film while thefilm is repeatedly passed through said light beam in the same lengthwisedirection.

A further object of the invention is to provide means controlled by oneofthe films for causing 5 the lateral relative movements between thefilm and the printing light beam. If the control oi. the lateralrelative movements should be effected by the primary film then this filmhas to be provided with suitable control means, like notches orperforations, at intervals corresponding to the length of the secondaryfilm; should the control be effected by the secondary film, then asingle notch or the like in this film is sufilcient.

With optical printing it is advantageous to effeet the relative lateraldisplacement between the film and the printing light beam by moving saidlight beam; while with contact printing one of the two films has to bemoved laterally at the predetermined intervals.

In the drawing a printing apparatus according to the invention isillustrated diagrammatically.

The primary film I provided with a sound record in a single track iswithdrawn from the spool 2 by means of the sprocket 6 guided through thelight beam of the light source 8 and wound upon the spool 3. The endlessband of film 4 is withdrawn from the coil 5 at the inner convolutionsthereof by the one side of the sprocket 'l', is then guided by therollers I! in a loopto the other side of the sprocket and back to thecoil, and is paid on the coil at the outer convolutions thereof. Thesprockets Sand 1 are mounted upon and driven by a common axis 3, so thatrelative lengthwise oscillations between the two films can not arisewhich is particularly important if the endless band is a narrow film andthe reduced dimensions of the sound record printed upon it involve anincreased uniformity of the movement of the films.

The primary film is traversed by the light of the light source 8, andthe light beam is reflected onto the secondary film by the mirrors 9 andIll through a mask II. This mask is provided with an opening the widthof which is equal to the width of the single sound tracks to be printedupon the film 4.

The mirror l0 and the gate H are mounted upon a shiftable support l9which is secured to the ratchet bar I6 and engaging this bar in the Thispawl forms the armature of the electromagnet [4 in the circuit of whichthere is a contact I3 which glides on theedge of the film 4. In the edgeof the film l 'a' notch I2 is provided. As soon as the notch l2 passesthe contact l3, this contact closes the circuit of the magnet M whichattracts the pawl l5. Thereby the ratchet bar l6 and the support H! areshifted in a direction transversely of the film 4, and with them alsothe mirror I!) and the mask l I. Thereby the printing lightbeam isshifted laterally and directed to the next track to be printed on Thismethod enables, f. e., to transfer a sound record from a primary film of1200 in. length onto an endless band if narrow film of 30 m. length inthe form of 40 subsequent sound tracks running round the film inparallel to the edges of the film, the adjacent sound tracks beingconnected by bridging portions provided at one point of the film. It isobvious that the sound record on the endless film can also be combinedof the sound records of several difierent primary films, or that eachone of several sound records recorded in single parallel tracks on theprimary film may thus be transferred onto the endless film. To enable toselect the desired sound record on the primary film, the supportcarrying the light source and the mirror 9 may be also shiftabletransversely of the film l. 7

Of course the apparatus according to the invention can also be used fortransferring a sound record recorded in several adjacent sound tracks onan endless film onto a film with two ends in form of a single soundtrack, this process being the inversion of the above described process.For this purpose only the direction of the printing light beam has to bereversed.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of myinvention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare thatwhat I claim is':

1. In a film printing apparatus, a primary film having sound recordsrecorded thereon, a source of light for passing a beam of light throughsaid records, an endless strip of secondary film, means for deflectingsaid beam after the same has passed through said primary film, means formoving said secondary film continuously through said deflected beam, andmeans for shifting the position of said deflecting means transversely tothe direction of movement of said secondary film.

2. In a film printing apparatus, a primary film having sound recordsrecorded thereon, a source of light for passing a beam of light throughsaid records, an endless strip of secondary film, optical means fordeflecting said beam after the same has passed through said records,means for moving said secondary film repeatedly and continuously throughsaid deflected beam, a mechanism for shifting the position of saiddeflecting means transversely to the direction of movement of saidsecondary film after every substantially complete passage of saidsecondary film through said defiected beam, and means on one of saidfilms and being movable therewith for controlling said mechanism.

3. In a film printing apparatus, a primary film having sound recordsrecorded thereon in single tracks, a source of light directing a beam oflight through a sound track of said primary film, means for moving saidprimary film through said beam, an unexposed endless strip of secondaryfilm, means for deflecting the beam onto said secondary film after saidbeam has passed through said primary film, means for confining thecrosssectional area of said deflected beam, means for moving saidsecondary film repeatedly and continuously through said deflected beam,means for shifting the position of said deflecting means and saidconfining means transversely to the direction of movement of saidsecondary film after every substantially complete passage of saidsecondary film through said deflected beam, means on one of said filmsand movable therewith for controlling said shifting means, and means formaintaining a constant ratio of speed between said films.

4. In a film printing apparatus, a primary film having sound recordsrecorded thereon in single tracks, a source of light directing a beam oflight through a sound track of said primary film, means for moving saidprimary film in longitudinal direction through said beam and forpreventing transverse movement of said primary film, an unexposedendless strip of secondary film, means for deflecting the beam onto saidsecondary film comprising at least two reflectors, said reflectors beingpositioned relative to each other so that the incident beam coming fromsaid light source, passing through said primary film and striking one ofsaid reflectors is parallel to the reflected beam emitted from the otherreflector and striking said secondary film, means for moving saidsecondary film repeatedly and continuously in longitudinal directionthrough the reflected beam and for preventing transverse movement ofsaid of said reflectors and said confining means intermittently andtransversely to the direction of movement of said secondary film throughsaid reflected beam, said shifting means including an electro-magneticelement and means on one of said films and movable therewith for controlling said element.

DENES voN MIHALY.

